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Atornado created by my swirling emotions shredded my insides and tore at my heart. I had watched as Eason and Kye fed her their blood. When the venom sent their sex drive into overtime, I had looked away. While I might not have seen the act of them bonding, I had heard everything. Her whimpers and moans of pleasure, the sloshing water that made it clear what was happening beneath the surface, and finally, her screams.
To my shame, I did sneak quick glimpses. Once, when Kye was helping the weak, battered pair claim each other, and again when Kye brought her to another orgasm. She glowed the color of the sea, her eyes bright, and her face radiant as she screamed Kye’s name. His roar of pleasure mixed with hers, and ugly jealousy shot through me. I was happy for them, but I was also heartbroken.
I had never felt as happy as I had those past few days. The guys had welcomed me into their group as one of their own. There was no awkwardness. It was just assumed that whatever decision was made, I was part of it. If they wanted to investigate, it was assumed that I was going with them.
They had even been surprised by my absence when I left to pick up some of my personal stuff from my hotel. We hadn’t been staying at the same one, and I had been gone less than an hour before Kye called to ask where I was. He said I should have told him, and he would have ridden with me to keep me company.
They weren’t investigating me or stalking me. They were treating me exactly like they treated each other, like brothers.
What I hadn’t expected was that I would feel so drawn to the mermaid that we spent days trying to track. I thought my obsessive interest was because of my curiosity as a scientist. But when she had fought the sharks, and then died in Eason’s arms, I knew I had been so wrong.
I wanted her love—and I wanted her to mark me.
I tried to convince myself it was simply my brain wanting to study the effects. But just the thought of a scientist studying her or putting her in a display tank in the name of science sent white hot rage coursing through me. I didn’t want her anywhere near land, it was better if she stayed as far away from those prying eyes as possible. My identity as a scientist began to crumble at the realization that science was no longer the most important thing on this planet to me.
Then the men created a plan to save Storm. As long as the beautiful mermaid agreed with the plan, it was the best option we had. I understood the logic. But as I tried to ignore the sounds around me, loneliness weighed me down as surely as if I had swallowed lead. I didn’t know where I would stand with the men once they had each bonded with Zosime. There was no way my heart would be able to handle working alongside them, knowing Zosime could never be mine.
I had gone from a world-renowned marine biologist and doctor, to feeling like an imposter. If possible, I would hide Zosime from the world forever. Could any self-respecting scientist hold his head up after knowing he purposely hid one of the most important marine discovers to ever be made?
I would help them get to shore, and make sure that both Storm and Zosime were recovering. Then I would destroy all evidence pointing toward the mermaid, and release a statement saying we had found a shark with a deformed jaw. The crooked cops wanted this to disappear, so they wouldn’t question me. Storm would take them all down once he recovered and finished the investigation he had started secretly.
Then I would allow myself to disappear. I would travel to my favorite place on earth, hidden from the rest of the world, and do… Well, I didn’t know what I would do. But at least I had a plan.
Storm’s heart tripped beneath my fingers, and then it stopped. I screamed for Kye and Zosime. I knew his outside injuries were bad, but for him to have passed this quickly, there must be significant internal damage too. I wanted to believe he could be saved, but logic screamed that it was too late.
Kye swam to my side, Zosime clinging to him. Fatigue showed on Kye’s face, but he seemed to have handled the toxin better than his first time, and far better than Eason. For a moment, my curiosity flickered. Had Kye received a lesser dose because she had bitten Eason first? Or was it possible that with each exposure, the effects would lessen? I shoved the errant thoughts into the dark recesses of my mind, reminding myself that I was finished with this life.
Kye tucked Zosime against Storm’s side. I’d kept his head above water, but quickly released my hold once she was against him. I had watched her with Eason and knew as long as she was with him, Storm would stay above water.
We both watched in surprise as she wrapped one arm around his neck and tucked the other beneath his arm. Water sloshed around them, and then stilled. Storm’s body tilted back, his legs floating to the surface. Zosime had curled her tail around his legs, careful to not injure him further. Storm now floated on top of the water, the mermaid’s body acting as a giant foam pool noodle for him. If she could stay in that position, it would make getting them back to shore far easier. But first, she would have to be able to save him.
I am not sure what I expected. Maybe I thought healing magic would shoot from her palm, or she would bite him and kick-start his body with her toxin. What I hadn’t expected was for her to rip open her wrist and press it to his pale lips. That done, she sighed and sagged against him.
For several minutes, nothing happened; she seemed to fall asleep, and a tiny trail of blood trickled from the side of his mouth. Then his lips pressed to her wrist, the movement so subtle that I thought I had imagined it. His Adam’s apple bobbed with each swallow. I jumped in surprise when his hand flew to her wrist, pinning it in place. The movement had been inhumanly fast.
A growl rumbled in his chest, and I could have sworn I saw a flash of teeth as he gulped at her wrist with a hunger that worried me. Would he be able to stop before he hurt her? Surely, she would stop him before that happened, right?
Anxiety and fear churned in my stomach. She wouldn’t stop him. If she had been worried about her safety, she wouldn’t have leaped into the middle of a feeding frenzy to save us. Between our knowledge and survival skills, we should have at least managed to put up a bit of a fight. Instead, we had been caught so off guard, we had needed to be saved by a mermaid. A terrifying, deadly, ruler-of-the-sea type of mermaid, but a mermaid, nonetheless.
A mermaid that I longed to hold and protect from the world.
I began taking inventory of their wounds. The open wounds scattered down Storm’s body had sealed themselves closed. His lips and skin grew flush, the sickly grey fading with each long pull from her wrist.
Turning my focus to Zosime, I studied her face. She was pale, but most of the cuts on her neck and face were pale pink lines. I continued my inspection, moving down her body. A jagged slash ran between her ribs, the angry puckered skin was still trying to heal. My heart slammed into my ribcage. If that was a knife, it was likely she had life-threatening organ damage. She had proved she had the ability to heal, but could she heal herself fast enough to survive internal trauma?
My eyes darted across her body. Other than pale pink lines indicating healing flesh wounds, it seemed her body had escaped injury. I began my visual inspection of her tail. We had known it was bad, but since the attack it had remained below the water. When my eyes took in the damage, I turned and emptied what little bit remained in my stomach.
It wasn’t the sight that made me ill, it was the thought of the excruciating pain she had to be experiencing. The shark had nearly detached her fluke from her tail. Rows of serrated teeth had sawed into her skin and muscle, shredding it with ease and exposing bone.
I struggled to understand what I was seeing. She said if she drank blood, then she could heal herself and Storm. The blood Eason had dripped into her mouth had restarted her heart, just as the blood she spilled into Storm’s mouth restarted his. His wounds had healed quickly.
Looking toward Eason and Kye, I searched every inch of visible skin, but they were flawless. In fact, a rather distinct scar that had been on Eason’s temple was gone. She didn’t just heal their new wounds; she healed all signs of damage.
I was getting frustrated. Inspecting her tail, I noticed it wasn’t bleeding. You could bleed to death from wounds half this serious. Looking at her beautiful pale face, it hit me like a sledgehammer. She had healed herself just enough to survive and then stopped. She had drunk as much as she dared to take, not for herself, but to use on each man.
Swimming closer, I reached out to check her pulse, but yanked my hand back when Storm’s eyes flashed open. Glowing eyes locked onto me, and they didn’t belong to the mermaid. I held my hands up, trying to show him I meant no harm. He snarled in response. The tables had turned, and it wasn’t the mermaid who was the feral one now.
“Guys?” I called out to the others. “We have a situation. I need you guys to swim toward me. Move very slow—do not touch Zosime or Storm.” As I spoke, I never broke eye contact with Storm.
